To Blanche or Not to Blanche

by Kathi Carter Rodriguez

That’s the question on my mind this week.  Over the past two weeks, our veggies have runneth over in our crisper.  Hubby and I have gotten a little behind in eating our weekly bounty.  So what’s a CSA member to do?  Blanching and freezing our vegetables seemed like a good solution.  

Freezing was a no brainer, but blanching required more research on my part.  I discovered that the word itself dates back to Old French circa 1400s.  Blanching is a super quick boiling and cooling process that often precedes freezing, drying or canning produce.  It’s a key step designed to halt oxidation, aka enzymic browning, so as to preserve coloring, flavoring and nutrients in vegetables and fruits.  

Though blanching is a fairly simple process, the timing involved has to be spot on.  Please know that various vegetables and fruits have different blanching timings. I decided to make my foray into blanching using squash because we had oodles of zucchini and yellow squash. 

Blanching and Freezing Squash

What you’ll need: Large pot with lid and blanching basket Large bowl of ice (2 trays of ice should be suffice) Slotted spoon (a large spoon with slots/holes) A timer  4-5 squash (about 4 cups) Quart-size Ziploc freezer bags  Instructions:   Add water to a large pot and allow boiling.  In the meantime, clean and slice squash.  When the water starts to boil vigorously, place squash into blanching basket and lower into pot. Cover the pot with a lid.  Allow the squash to boil for a minute only.  Spoon out the squash and plunge it into a large bowl of ice for another minute. Drain the squash, then place on a paper towel-lined baking sheet to air dry and sop up as much moisture as possible using a paper towel.  Place about 2 cups of squash per freezer bags.  This can be store for up to 10 months in a freezer.    Result: Year round zucchini and yellow squash. ☺